Bugging out

Karma has bitten me in the ass and damn, does my tush hurt.

Last night, reader Jamie asked me for some fun tips for curing boredom. So, thinking I was all cute, I offered this gem:

4. Call the company that makes the turkey/cake mix/whatever the last food item you bought that was not up to snuff. Complain. Receive coupon for free item in the mail. (I plead the fifth)

Well, guess what happened to me today? Just guess! I was eating some dried mixed fruit out of a big, just-opened bag. Ate an apricot, munched on an apple slice, scored a plum (okay, a prune) and then, I reached for my favorite - the pear. Such soft, melt-in-your-mouth chewy deliciousness. Until...

I noticed, as I was happily swallowing my first bite, that a tiny baby spider had curled up and gone to spider heaven right there in the bottom half of the pear that I was eating.

Now, I've waitressed for many years and know full well that lots of things worse than baby bugs can come into contact with one's food. But as soon as I saw Mr. Itsy Bitsy hibernating in my snack, the very first thing I thought was, "Where is the frigging customer service number? I am SO getting free dried fruit for life!"

Then I thought back to this blog and literally started laughing at myself. Talk about a self-fulfilling prophecy.

But I'm still calling at 8am EST tomorrow.

Billboard porn

Lately, so-called unscrupulous billboard advertising has been making headlines and I couldn't be happier that offenders are getting called out. By now, most of you know I get riled up by ads that portray women in, shall we say, less than flattering light.

But it hit a little closer to home when this billboard was recently erected in a Chicago suburb. The ad, which portrays a woman lying wet on a beach, apparently dressed in just a top, back arched and butt up in the air, is for a salon. All around her, arrows highlight various problematic body parts (from dull hair to cellulite) and, as luck would have it, solutions available at the salon RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER!

Puke.

Is this what we want our little girls to see as we drive them to soccer practice or art class?

There was also a big hubub made over a recent billboard touting divorce as a quick fix for a dreary, boring, stale life. A female-run law firm put up the ad, which depicted a female and male body, only showing the tanned, taut (and apparently surgically enhanced) torsos and the tagline "Life is Short. Get a Divorce."

Where are our priorities?

Oh, PS...to give you an idea of the mentality we're dealing with: the salon owner who erected the spa billboard had this to say in the Chicago Tribune when defending his choice: "You know what? My next billboard is going to be of a 300-pound woman and it will say, 'Could you help me please?' Then everyone would be after me saying, 'My son is traumatized because you showed me a fat woman.' You can never win."

Classy.

What would your caption read on a billboard with his pic?

PS Love to my highly-evolved husband for pointing out the salon ad. You're the best!

Having a ball

Some people have trouble rubbing their stomachs and patting their heads. Others are master-multitaskers and like to text-message while they drive. Me, I like to think I can handle more than one thing at once (while not putting others in harm's way, that is), which is why, as I type, I am sitting on a BRAND SPANKING NEW, 65-INCH, MULTICOLORED Exercise Ball!

I am so excited.

For years I have read that these things, which I typically save for the gym during stomach-crunch time, are phenom replacements for desk chairs. They work your core (abs, back and obliques) because you are constantly engaging all of your muscles while sitting on it. Otherwise, clearly, you would roll off, onto the floor, and then, my poor reader, you'd roll out the door. The balls are also supposed to be great for your posture...if, that is, you don't allow yourself to fall into hunchback mode.

So my friends at Relax the Back in Chicago have given me a fabu ball, all swirly-colored and pumped full of air, for me to sit on as I blog The Weighting Game. I've been using it for about a week now and I must say, I already am feeling a difference. At first my back felt a bit tired when working out (I'm assuming because it wasn't used to be, well, used so much.) But now I no longer feel weak, my abs are rocking out and I'm much more conscious of my posture. I do have to take off my flip-flops when perched OTB (On The Ball), though; otherwise, on the hardwood floors, my feet slowly but surely slide out and I risk kerplunking on the floor.

As a bonus, when my eyes start to get strained from the computer, I can take a quick break and eek out some crunches or back exercises. Here is a visual of what I look like, so you feel more in sync with my daily activities.

Just kidding.

Many thanks to the staff at Chicago's Relax the Back! Go try out a ball everyone. I'll keep you posted on my progress...

xo,
Leslie

Does everyone binge?

Bingeing seems like such a dirty word...but according to a recent study out of Harvard University–affiliated McLean Psychiatric Hospital, Binge Eating Disorder, or BED, is America’s most common eating disorder...more common than anorexia and bulimia combined. I know this because I had the privilege of writing a very unique, heartrending story for Health Magazine on the subject, which is just now out, entitled "Our Dirty Little Secret? We Can’t Stop Bingeing."

I interviewed many brave, outspoken women from around the country who decided they no longer wanted to hide, that they would serve as ambassadors for the millions of other women (and men) in the U.S. who struggle with this eating disorder, using it as a coping mechanism to manage their emotions. BED can be much more devastating than simply plowing through a pint of ice cream while mindlessly watching late-night TV or, as I recently wrote about, not being able to control oneself with a bulk size container of chocolate-covered raisins in the house. But they all fall on a spectrum where food and emotions blur together in a muddy rainbow. Hopefully you'll go pick up the magazine, learn more about this disease and if you need help, you can tap into some of the resources listed at the end of the article. Let's clean up that rainbow, make it bright and feel the warmth that can accompany a life free from emotional eating.

I hope everyone here has a wonderful, relaxing weekend. Feel free to drop in and share any stories or feedback you may have to this post - it's a hot topic and hearing about the experiences of other women is always helpful.

xoxoxo
Leslie

D.W.T.S. delayed reaction

So are you telling me that if I seriously take up ballroom dancing, my back will look as strong, toned and unbelievable sexy as Joey Fatone's partner, Kym Johnson? Will some of Laila Ali's impossibly lovely grace rub off on me, the klutz to end all klutzes? I never really watched that show but I caught the season finale and, my God!! You could bounce quarters of those dancers' thighs/butts/shoulders! Not to mention their insane talent...I would find myself grinning like a fool just watching them dance. I want to be on that show. I want to dance with the stars. Apolo Anton Ohno...Emmitt Smith...Ratzenberger...just give me somebody! Maybe this explains my lifelong infatuation with being a Janet Jackson backup dancer.

This is so random, I know, and I meant to post it three days ago, but first I confused Tuesday as being Wednesday and then I spent yesterday on a crazy caffeine-fueled deadline bender.

More to come.

PS Not matter how much I covet their lean limbs and twirling finesse, I would never, ever wear that ridonculous Star Wars get up. A girl's gotta draw the line somewhere.

A moment on the lips...

Today is a sad day for my mouth.

I was supposed to visit the National Restaurant Association Hotel-Motel Show in Chicago – a sensory overload of foods, beverages and all things edible – but got entangled in deadlines. That is why, to torture myself, I decided to check out the “Hot New Products” section of the meeting and tease myself with what I missed…including:

Savoir Fare Hors d’Oeuvres Caribbean baby lobster tail with coconut and Mediterranean salad.

Carla's Pasta Cuore Mio Ravioli made with whole wheat pasta, filled with edamame beans, zucchini, spinach, sweet red peppers, raisins, ricotta and imported romano cheeses.

Mariebelle New York Frozen Hot Chocolate.

Exclusive Caviar de Venise farmed Italian caviar (I don’t even like caviar, but still…)

Bubbies Homemade Haupia - Okinawan Sweet Potato Mochi Ice Cream.

Blount Seafood Shrimp Fra Diavolo, Seafood in Lobster Cream Sauce, Shrimp & Scallop Florentine.

Fresh Green Organic micro green mix containing arugala, mizuna, tendergreen, bull's blood, beet top, tatsoi, and kohlrabi. (I don’t know what five of the seven are, but they sure sound exotic!)

Greek Island Spice Sonoma Harvest Chutney with figs, apricots, peaches, dates, raisins, cherries, and pears, steeped in chardonnay wine.

Hoo Roo Outback Wild Hibiscus Flowers which, when placed in a champagne flute, slowly open from bud to blossom. Sigh.

Kona Kampachi™ sashimi-grade, sustainably-raised Hawaiian yellowtail fish

LÄRABAR® new flavors: Key Lime Pie and Pistachio

Love and Quiches NY Cheesecake and Chocolate Lava Cake

Breyers' Mrs. Fields® Premium Cookie Sandwich – rich, creamy premium vanilla ice cream sandwiched between two Mrs. Fields melt-in-your mouth milk chocolate chip cookies.

Oh, the sacrifices we make for our work.

People need to shut up

My girlfriend, R., was out with her little girl enjoying a nice lunch when a grandpa-aged man approached the two of them and announced, completely unsolicited and pointing at R's daughter, "She needs to go on a DIET!"

Her daughter is five months old.

What the *%@!?

And more recently, a woman approached the pair and exclaimed, "She is such a LARGE BABY! Is she in the 99th percentile or something?"

I really don't understand what goes on in peoples' minds. Why is it considered acceptable by so many to comment on total strangers' weights? I myself have been subjected to this, starting from when I was younger and constantly greeted with comments from my parents' friends of, "Oh, she's so big!" (they likely were referring to my height, but still...blah!) and even in grad school, I remember being at a black-tie benefit and a doctor I worked with grabbed my waist and told me I needed to eat more. Lasanga was hanging out of my mouth at the time so I couldn't retort with a witty comeback but I could see the look in my husband's eyes - we both wanted to take a swing.

Babies are not fat. I do not need to be told what to eat. When interviewing ladies for my book, I remember one woman, who was (in her words) obese but in the process of trying to lose, telling me about how, at the end of an aerobics class, a fellow gym-goer approached her and said, in a syrupy-sweet voice, "I just want you to know that seeing you here motivates me - you should be really proud of yourself." Gag.

I am really riled up over this baby incident - especially because, what happens if R's little angel grows up over the next year and still has her chubby cheeks and some idiots decide to make a comment or three and now she's old enough to take it in? R and I are trying to figure out a really good comeback...I suggested something that will make the offender feel dumb, but give them a chance to reflect on what they've said and possibly redeem themselves. Something like, "I'm sorry - I think I misheard you. It sounded like you said my baby needs to go on a diet and I know that can't possibly be right. Can you repeat yourself?"

Any other suggestions? We need to nip this in the bud.

Live long and prosper

I recently received a letter in the mail from my pension plan notifying me that, “According to our records, you will be turning 65 on May 1, 204...” (I stopped reading after that, so blindsided was I by this piece of information.) I’m not one to care about age - in fact, my husband and I threw a big Hello Kitty party for my 30th birthday - but something about seeing that date in print was a shock.

But I can only hope that come 2050, I am happy, healthy, active and loving life. And it turns out that the answer may right around the corner, across the globe and kicking back, in the ocean surrounding Japan and Taiwan, on an island called Okinawa. I was reading on the Diet Channel that residents of Okinawa have one of the longest life expectancies in the world, and an incredibly high rate of centenarians (people who live to be 100). If you want to live to a ripe old age…and still be agile and active enough to enjoy it, here are some tips the Okinawans live by:

Eat Your Veggies
Okinawans eat an average of seven servings of vegetables every day! Think colorful veggies like green peppers, sweet potatoes and purple cabbage. Many meals in Okinawa are also meatless or rely on tofu or seafood for protein.

Be Mindful
Take time to savor your food rather than shoveling it in, as anyone who was dining at RosaAngelis in Chicago tonight can tell you I am guilty of (between my dad and my husband, I had to fight for a caramel-covered strawberry!)

Visit the Diet Channel at http://www.thedietchannel.com/Diet-Information.htm to learn more. And feel free to leave your own eating and exercise tips, no matter what your age!

Hope you all had a great weekend!

Soulcrushing airbrushing

Speechless.

I know airbrushing occurs. It's everywhere. But never before have I seen such an egregious example as this:

http://cravingideas.blogs.com/backinskinnyjeans/

I have no words except...and we wonder why our society is so messed up. I'll leave the rest up to you.

PS Please share this with friends, daughters, etc to spread the word about how women must cease comparing ourselves to the ads and images we see. And thanks to Back in Skinny Jeans for the eye-opening post!

Grocery list gawking

Good evening!

I just got back from a book signing - very intimate, all women - and I'm about to settle in for the night but I wanted to post about a funny thing that happened as I was flipping through a magazine on the Elliptical today. It was a Shape I happened to pick-up on the airplane that a fellow passenger left (I have a subscription but it hadn't arrived yet and I wanted to dig in!) So, I'm paging through and I catch a glimpse of what appears to be the left-behind grocery list of the former owner, handwritten in the margins of page 76. It reads as follows:

Melon Berries Bananas
Pineapple Carrots Celery
Tomatoes Salad Peppers/Kukes
Tuna Cereal Bread
Pasta Sauce Tortillas
Hummus Bean Salsa Chips
Milk Turkey Yogurt Ham
Rice Cheese

How frigging healthy was this person?! Where are the Teddy Grahams? The Red Bull? The New York Super Fudge Chunk?

No, really, I'm actually just teasing Miss Supermarket Sweet - this is a stellar list and not too far off from my own (just sub in "brownie mix" for "tortillas.") It was kinda neat to peer into another woman's grocery cart -- like a gastronomical diary!

Does this belong to anybody out there? Is your list similar to this? What's missing?

All this food talk is making me hungry...for cereal, of all things. 'Night!

Tough questions...critical answers

Today, experts from around the nation are gathering in New York for the GE Health Convention. A veritable brain trust of experts in the fields of cardiology, cancer, and more are addressing the future of healthcare by focusing on prevention and "early health." As you may read elsewhere on iVillage, in Q & As, interviews and other blogs, speakers will be discussing new screening methods for diseases like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and cancer, the differences in heart disease between women and men and much more.

So what does all of this mean to us -- everyday women trying to simply live a healthy, balanced life, trying to fit in our vegetables and daily exercise and maybe a yoga class and remember to put on our sunblock...let along get screened for devastating neurological diseases? Women, especially the health-conscious ladies who make iVillage and the Weighting Game such thriving, active communities, take disease prevention seriously. Women who are mothers tend to be the "doctors" in the family, scheduling medical and dental check-ups for both children and spouses, fixing cuts and scrapes and just generally making the pain go away. But in juggling everyone else’s health, along with our work life, friends, family (maybe you have parents with health concerns), hobbies and more, women often place their own physical and mental health last in the pecking order. Your stress-melting run? That book you've been dying to crack open? The spa weekend your best friend has been begging you to take with her? They all-too-often get tossed to the curb, as our own health is neglected for the sake of others'.

The focus of the GE Health convention, as I said, is early health. How can we make room for this idea in our already-crammed lives?

Some questions I’d love for you to answer...for the benefit of everyone here:

* What’s the first aspect of your weight loss/maintenance routine that gets kicked aside when life gets tough? (For instance, do you start mindlessly snacking on junk food? Drink a few too many while out with friends? Blow off the gym?)

* If you were really honest with yourself, do you ever resent one area of your life, such as your job or a parenting concern, because it interferes with your ability to take pure, carefree joy in a healthy behavior? (I'll go first: Sometimes I hate my obsessive tendency to take on too much work because it stresses me out to the max, and I wind up freaking out, eating brownie batter and peanut butter from the jar and then feeling pissed at myself for getting so worked up in the first place...for all that time spent worrying, I probably could have gone for a 20-minute jog.)

* Many of you are careful to exercise and eat right. In fact, it’s probably become, or is becoming, an ingrained part of your life. Congratulations! But let me ask, Is it mainly to look good? (Not that there's anything wrong with a gorgeous bod!) Or is it primarily to keep your body healthy for the future? Does the impetus matter, so long as we are carving out the time to exercise and eat well? After all, the outcome may be similar...but we don't want to get tripped up on body image when we could be focusing on sticking around for our families and futures.

* And lastly, with so much emphasis placed on early health...would you want to be screened for a disease like Alzheimer’s or Parkinson's? If there is no cure, do you believe knowing you would develop this type of disease would allow you to live life more fully - or act as a curse, hanging over your head? Heart disease screening is different - you can take actions to prevent its onset. But with the other two...it's kind of like knowing the exact date you’re going to die. Could you handle the gamble? I’m not sure if I could...

Some serious questions to ponder. I’ll post some of my reflections, too.

Happy Mother's Day!

I hope everyone is having a beautiful day, celebrating the women in their lives, be they their moms, grandmothers, daughters, moms-to-be, and more. Unfortunately, I'm apart from my mom and grandma today but they are in my heart, as always. Never could my words do justice to all the wonderful love that mothers provide so I'll keep this short and simple with some quotes from others:

"A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie." - Tenneva Jordan

"I am not a perfect mother and I will never be. You are not a perfect daughter and you will never be. But put us together and we will be the best mother and daughter we would ever be." - Zoraida Pesante

"God could not be everywhere, and therefore he created mothers." - Jewish Proverb

"A mother is someone who dreams great dreams for you, but then she lets you chase the dreams you have for yourself and loves you just the same." Author Unknown

A happy day to all my family, friends who are new and seasoned moms, readers who have children or may be expecting, and most importantly, to Donna, Jean, Bubbie and Barbra. You are all phenomenal, giving, warm and nurturing women...xoxo. Ellen, you are deep in my thoughts today.

Please do post YOUR Mother's Day wishes here!!

NY (I love it!)

Can I just say, I love it in NY?! I walked, oh, 18 miles yesterday in heels yesterday, schlepping a laptop from 1970 on my shoulder, but still, it was great. I visited the offices of Women's Health (in-house yoga studio!!), Shape, Redbook and met with the spitfire producer who made my Today Show segment possible - she is so fun, energetic and has the most contagious laugh! And my WH editor, Cristina, was bright and smiley, despite having woken up at the buttcrack of dawn to train for an August triathalon (check out her blog at http://playtowin.womenshealthmag.com/ - she's also training with another editor of mine, Leah, who is currently dealing with a stress fracture, so send positive, healing thoughts her way!)

So far, I've enjoyed fantastic sushi, luxuriated in the smoke-free bars and restaurants, paid $2.00 for the most perfect orange gerbera daisy I have every seen and indulged every PMS whim I could imagine, including meatballs (meatballs?!) and chocolate mouse. Today, I shall eat...my giant pretzel and sample a few nuts (story of my life.)

xxoxo enjoy your day!
Leslie

Big apple

I'm in NY to meet with some of my fabulous editors, shop and and see some friends. After being stuck on a plane for three hours with nothing but diet Sprite , however, one thing is at the forefront of my mind: food. (Although I have to admit, it was mildly amusing when the flight attendant got on and said "Since we are grounded and know you all must be hungry, we will be breaking open our 'Flight Grounded' box which consists of...(dramatic pause)...granola bars."

I'm heading out for Greek food but tomorrow, I need my traditional giant hot pretzel, marking me as a tourist as much as a camera and neck craning upward. Or maybe I'll get those hot cashews coated in crack...I mean sugar. Help me decide - huge salty pretzel or sugary sweet nuts? I'm PMSing so both could work...

I'll take your suggestions under advisement.

xo!

In the flesh

By now, many of you have likely seen the astonishingly beautiful photo of more than 18,000 naked men and women bending down in prayer position, snapped in Mexico City's main square by U.S. photographer Spencer Tunick. Tunick is celebrated for his celebraton of the nude form - he travels across the nation, shooting huge groups of individuals against the most unlikely of backdrops: pouring down from a castle; in a smattering of rowboats; along a highway. They are, in my opinion, breathtaking. This last shoot, in Mexico, was his biggest nude pictorial yet.

The recent media frenzy over his work brings me back to a recent post of mine, where I wrote about a body image photographer who takes nude pictures of women with eating disorders as a way to help them in their recovery. While the two photographers have different obvious objectives, I think there's a common link: Finding beauty in diversity (Not that EDs are beautiful, but allowing the women to see they are not ugly.) Or even just allowing us, as observers, to step back and see that sometimes a body is just a body. We needn't inject so much meaning and pressure into every single part.

I wonder what it's like to be part of one of Tunick's shoots. You sign up on his web site (I checked...he's not coming to Chicago any time soon :-( ...indicating your skin tone by selecting from a handful of choices. I'm assuming he uses this to help plan the layout of his artwork, much like a mosaic, although I have no idea how such a massive undertaking (18,000 naked strangers!) actually occurs. Does he shout through a megaphone, "OK, everyone with fair skin gather on the Northwest side of the highway! And all of you with olive complexions...come this way." It would be mass, in-the-buff chaos.

However it happens, these photos honor the human form in such a gorgeous and special way it makes me yearn to take part in one. During the Mexico City shoot, one of the photos captures the thousands of people lying down, creating what is essentially a duvet of flesh. In the center, a naked man in a wheelchair looks up and out into the distance. I would be proud to hang this celebration of diversity and triumph in my home.

Would you?

Locker Room Diaries hitting shelves, II

Hi everyone!

I just wanted to share the exciting news that my book, Locker Room Diaries: The Naked Truth About Women, Body Image and Re-imagining the "Perfect" Body (Da Capo) is coming out in paperback...it just landed on my desk, straight from my editor, and it looks beautiful, if I do say so myself. It came out in hardcover this past June and, as some of you may know, I've been on a book tour and doing all sorts of fun, interactive readings and signings since then. It's crazy to imagine it's been almost a year since I wandered into Border's and saw it up on the New Non-fiction shelf, right next to Teri Hatcher's Burnt Toast!!

Please do check it out if you're looking for an introspective exploration of body image, a delve into locker room subculture (!), a great beach read, need a new bookclub book - it can be many things to many people. It's what you make of it! Ann Kearney-Cooke, PhD, author of Change Your Mind Change Your Body and media spokesperson for the Dove Real Beauty Campaign, called it, "A must-read for any woman who struggles with her body image. Finally, someone has asked women what they really think about their bodies, and their answers are at once surprising, life-affirming, heartbreaking, and hilarious."

You can read more at my web site, www.lrdiaries.com or at www.amazon.com

As Justin would sing, "I'm bringing (my paper) baaack!!" (Can you tell I'm psyched?!)

Have a lovely day everyone! I'll tell you when it's oficially out in stores...

Like riding a bike...you NEVER forget

I have a crazy fear of bicycles.

Living in downtown Chicago, biking is a way of life for many people - how they get to work, how they exercise, how they explore., how they send work to and from businesses. And it's great for the body, the environment, traffic...it's a win-win sitch. But having been in two horrific bicycle accidents, including riding my threespeed into a mailbox in sixth grade, knocking myself unconscious (not my proudest moment - I think I was actually calling out, "Look! I can ride with no hands!" at the time I crashed), as well as a much more serious debacle in high schol that landed me in a wheelchair for two months, I now see them as instruments of death. Literally, I could walk two miles faster than I could bike them, with all the starting and stopping that would occur.

I was reminded of my fear - and how much I'm missing because of it - while browsing through a blog http://fitsugar.com/237892 recently at FitSugar which asked community members whether or not they biked. Maybe if enough of you write in with glowingly positive stories, I could be convinced to get back on the horse (especially if it's pink and sparkles in the sunlight!) So tell me - is biking going to be my new summer pasttime? Or should I keep my feet on terra firma and stick with running?

X,
Leslie

In the thighs of the beholder

Sigh.

So, I'm on the elliptical machine, paging through a celeb weekly for some mindless reading while I workout, when I come across a two-page spread: Goalpost Gams.

As if Muffin Top and Bat Wings weren't bad enough.

For those of you lucky enough to not know what Goalpost Gams are, stop reading right here. The rest of you who have been enlightened understand this is the new term used to describe celebs' ultra-skinny legs (hence, resembling goalposts); the magazine then scribbled in an estimated distance, in inches, spanning between the thighs of Posh Spice, Nicole Ritchie, Renee Zelwegger and more. Is this necessary? Motivational? Downright mean? I suppose it's all three to different groups of people (publishers, disordered individuals and women in general, respectively.)

I'm trying to figure out how to reconcile the fact that I like reading these mags for the entertainment value, but abhor the constant obsession over women's bodies. Do I just need to chuck 'em and stick with the publications that portray healthy bods and make me feel good about myself? What do you do?

On a lighter note, I'm off to my second wedding in six days...and have about a gazillion more this summer (okay, five more to be exact.) I'll be Doing the Twist on Saturday night. Pray for me.

A picture can be worth 1,000 words

There’s a body image crusader I just have to tell you all about - I met her (well, over the phone) while writing an article for Women's Health Magazine. Her name is Holly Sasnett and she's an Atlanta-based photographer who takes pictures of women with eating disorders of all types - anorexia, bulimia, compulsive overeating. And here’s the thing: they’re nudes. The women come to Holly as part of their therapy; they get to know each other, discussing their goals and what they hope to get out of the photo shoot experience. Holly will play soft music (Sarah McLachlan is a favorite) and pose the women against lush velvet and brocade backgrounds. When the women are ready, they disrobe.

The point of the project, which Holly has entitled "Body Revisited" and has been doing for nine years, is to allow women to see themselves in a whole new light. How? The subjects' faces are never shown. By doing this, the woman can more objectively look at her body and see beauty where before, she saw ugliness; reality where before she was trapped in a funhouse mirror.

(If you want to experience this yourself, try looking in a mirror at you body, clothed or nude, with your face totally out of the reflection. I found the only way to achieve this is to climb on top of my toilet - lid closed! - and gaze into the bathroom mirror. This allows me to see myself from the neck-down and it truly does inject a healthy dose of objectivity into how I see my body. There's just something about not looking yourself in the eyes as you scan the rest of your figure that takes some pressure off and allows you to appreciate the beauty of your curves, the muscles you never realized you had or even how gracefully your hands hang at your sides.)

I urge you to check out the article to learn more - it’s in the May issue of Women's Health, on stands now. I'm hoping that perhaps business or pleasure will take me to Atlanta in the near future because I would LOVE to experience this. The whole process sounds extremely opening and uniquely healing. And the result is tangible evidence for my eyes only that I can take out on the occasional bad body image day to say, "Wow, that's me! In black and white and all my glory, cellulite be damned!"

What do you think? Would you pose nude? If you knew it could help you feel better about yourself, the images were for you to keep, the pose was tasteful, etc. What kind of benefit do you see coming from it? Remember, this isn’t Sam on Sex and the City framing her butt for the pizza delivery guy to gawk at. It’s for YOU.

XO,
Leslie

It's my birthday and I'll blog if I want to...

Happy Birthday to me! I'm on my way to take a celebratory nap from all the writing I've been up to but just wanted to stop in and say hello to all of my new friends here at iVillage - looking forward to a wonderful year ahead! Thanks for all of the positivity and insight you've brought to the Weighting Game so far.

xo & hugs,
Leslie